Archive for the ‘Reo Gasoline Commerical Cars’ tag

Ransom Eli Olds unceremoniously bailed on his benefactors when they disagreed about what sort of cars should bear his name, affordable ones for the masses or very costly ones for the elites of society.
Without missing a beat, Olds found new backers, and to get around the prohibition of using his own name on a competing car to the Oldsmobile, he cleverly named the new company Reo, after his initials.
During its lifespan, Reo would build the sort of up-level car that Olds had envisioned, but a lot of the firm’s early output came in the form of trucks. Today, we can trace the earliest mention of Reo Gasoline Commercial Cars to 1906, two years after Reo was founded.
Our research materials indicate that one of its earliest truck models was the Reo Flareboard Express, introduced in 1909. Yet here, we are confronted by a 1908 Reo truck that showed up in the online classifieds of the American Truck Historical Society. It’s a Model H, the higher capacity of two trucks Reo introduced in 1910.
The production Model H had a 3/4-ton capacity and solid tires. The seller, based in Ontario, believes this truck could have been an early design prototype for the Model H. It’s an older restoration, in running shape with current registration.
Price for this Brass-Era hauler? $25,000 (CDN) or best offer. If you’re interested call the seller at 905-834-9422.

(This post originally appeared in the March 9, 2006, issue of the Hemmings eWeekly Newsletter.)